The Writing on the Wall

“How would you like to collaborate with me on a new project?” asks Brody Neuenschwander, Princeton University Class of 1981. “The castle of Hingene, near Antwerp in Belgium, is creating a time capsule in calligraphy.”

He continues, “For a short time, all the wall hangings of the chateau will be taken down for restoration. The director of the castle, Koen De Vlieger, is taking this opportunity to ask the entire world (I’m not kidding) to send in messages that I will commit to eternity by writing them on the walls. So may I ask all of you to go to www.schrijfenblijf.be and send a message to the future? They will ask you to pay a tiny amount for the privilege. But just think, in 25 years the wall hangings will come down for their next cleaning, and you and your descendants can visit Belgium to read the fine words you composed for this wonderful time capsule.”

Neuenschwander attended Princeton University, where he was appointed University Scholar, graduating in 1981 with a paper on the techniques of medieval manuscript illumination. Over the winter of 2016/17, he will write our texts on the walls of the castle of Hingene, not to be unveiled until 2027 and then again in 2042, 2067 and 2117 (or in 25, 50 and 100 years’ time). On each occasion, during the second weekend of March, the public will be free to come and read the dreams, wishes and desires of 2017.

If you remember to bring the original invitation with you, the director promises to receive you like a Prince or a Princess.

http://www.wordslast.be/homepage/

http://www.brodyneuenschwander.com/wall-to-wall/

Full Disclosure

As he tosses books into the flames, the Prince of Wales says, “Echod this is a fine Stroke, my observations on the Family & Letters, all burned, John Bull will still be left in the Dark, & he must pay for it at last.” The Duke of Portland (seen here) replies, “And the Duchess will think me as Chaste as Joseph—So much for my Darling.”

Isaac and George Cruikshank, Burning the Memoirs, April 24, 1809. Etching with hand coloring. Graphic Arts Collection GC022 Cruikshank

Beginning in 1803, actress Mary Anne Clarke (1776-1852) became the mistress of Frederick Augustus, Prince, Duke of York and Albany (1763-1827), the second son of King George III. Although he provided a mansion and generous allowance, she wanted more.

Clarke used her influence with Frederick (who was Commander-in-Chief of the British Army) to obtain promotions for anyone who paid her price. In January 1809, the scheme was made public and by March, Frederick was forced to resign.

Isaac Cruikshank and his 16-year-old son George worked together to caricature Mary Anne and Frederick, publishing their print on April 24, 1809. Thomas Rowlandson beat them by a few days, with two caricatures: Burning the Books, on April 21, and A Piece Offering!! on April 22. The Graphic Arts Collection holds at least 32 prints on the controversy.

Clarke, seen at the far right, was paid a large sum to keep her diaries secret but in the end, could not keep quiet.

This scandalous case raised a cloud of pamphlets, some of which are very amusing, and most of them full of falsehoods; but the most curious of all was Mrs. Clarke’s own book, ‘The Rival Princes,’ in which she freely discussed the attitude towards each other of the Dukes of York and Kent, and attacked the leaders of the party who had brought on the investigation, especially Wardle, M.P. for Salisbury, and Lord Folkestone. This work was answered by two of much weaker character, The Rival Dukes, or Who is the Dupe? and The Rival Queens, or What is the Reason? by P. L. McCallum, a spy upon Mrs. Clarke, who prided himself on being the real author of the investigation. – Henry Morse Stephens for the Dictionary of National Biography

See also: A Letter to Mrs. Clarke: on her Late Connection with the Duke of York, and the charges preferred against His Royal Highness by G. L. Wardle, Esq. by a Friend to Church and State (London: Printed for and published by J. Bell …, 1809). Rare Books 14463.999 v.27

Mary Anne Clarke (1776-1852), The Rival Princes ; or, A Faithful Narrative of Facts, relating to Mrs. M.A. Clarke’s political acquaintance with Colonel Wardle, Major Dodd, &c. &c. &c., who were concerned in the charges against the Duke of York (London: printed for the author, and published by C. Chapple, 1810). Firestone 14463.361.25

The Ten Birth Tales and the Legend of Phra Malai

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired a mid-nineteenth century illustrated folding Funeral Book/Book of Merit containing a collection of Buddhist texts in Pali and Thai languages, in Khmer (Cambodian) script. Executed in watercolor, gilt, and ink, the stories include the legend of Phra Mali and the Ten Birth Tales. Although it is not dated, this wonderful volume is likely from Central Thailand between 1850 and 1900.

This large folding leporello of heavy paper (probably made from mulberry bark) is comprised of 48 leaves penned in a single neat hand in Khmer script and completed on both recto and verso. The work includes 17 paintings: 8 pairs of vibrant watercolors, several embellished with gilt, and one full double-page panel depicting scenes in Hell.

The British Library online notes: “The production of illustrated folding books ranks as one of Thailand’s greatest cultural achievements. They were produced for different purposes in Buddhist monasteries and at the royal and local courts, as well. First of all, such books served as teaching material and handbooks for Buddhist monks and novices. Classical Buddhist literature, prayers (Sutras) and moral teachings were also read to the lay people during religious ceremonies. The production of folding books-–and even sponsoring their production–was regarded as a great act of merit making. Therefore, folding books quite often are a kind of “Festschrift” in honour of a deceased person.”

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/remarkmanu/thai/index.html

Thanks to the assistance of Deborah Cotham and Dr Jana Igunma at the British library, we believe that the present example is one such funeral book, most probably completed by one scribe in Khmer script, though the language of the text is a mixture of Pali and Thai. I quote their notes in full:

The first part of the manuscript refers to the ten qualities of the Buddha, which are usually illustrated by the Buddha’s last Ten Birth Tales (Thai thotsachat). This section would be written in Pali, the language of the Buddhist canon. Funeral books were often commissioned by family members in order to make merit on behalf of the deceased person and to ensure that their family would not end up in hell, but be reborn in one of the Buddhist heavens. Thus the manuscript also includes the legend of Phra Malai, the famous Buddhist Saint, who traveled to the Buddhist heavens and hells.

During his visits to hell (naraka), Phra Malai was said to bestow mercy on the creatures suffering there, and who implore him to warn their relatives on earth of the horrors of hell and how they can escape it through making merit on behalf of the deceased, meditation and by following Buddhist precepts. Indeed, one of the most striking of the illustrations found in the present example, is the double-page depiction of the horrors of hell. Most of the text is in black ink on thick paper, most probably made from the bark of the khoi tree (streblus asper).

The first part in particular, has been accurately and quite beautifully penned and with great care taken, suggesting the work of a skilled scribe. It is impossible to say whether he also illustrated the work, although academics believe that they were more often the work of a different artist. A number of the vibrant illustrations have been embellished with in gilt, which further added value and prestige to such manuscripts, and a way of earning further merit on behalf of the deceased. In this instance, some of the images appear to have been influenced by Western painting techniques, suggesting that the painter may have been a student experimenting with new styles and techniques.

The legend of Phra Malai, a Buddhist monk of the Theravada tradition said to have attained supernatural powers through his accumulated merit and meditation, is the main text in a nineteenth-century Thai folding books (samut khoi). He figures prominently in Thai art, religious treatises, and rituals associated with the afterlife, and the story is one of the most popular subjects of nineteenth-century illustrated Thai manuscripts.

Thanks to Martin Heijdra, Ph. D. 何義壯, Director, East Asian Library, for his help with this acquisition.

For further information see Henry Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture. Historic manuscripts from Western Collections (London: British Library, 2000).

Bibliosophia VS Bibliomania

Between the time of William Miller’s 9^th edition and Thomas Tegg’s 4^th edition of James Beresford’s massive best-seller Miseries of Human Life, the author took time out to write something else. But rather than continue to write about fictional characters, he bravely (or brutally) chose to publicly satirize one of his Oxford colleagues Thomas Dibdin.

Bibliomania had been released the year earlier, to some success. Beresford jumped on it and in Bibliosophia or Book-Wisdom, he chronicled in minute detail the improper and unseemly elements of Dibdin’s work. Although Beresford’s name was not included on the title page, the identity of the author was not a secret.

Given his notoriety with Miseries, Beresford must have known that people would read and listen to his opinions. In fact, the attention he gave Bibliomania may have inadvertently given it the boost it needed and an even larger edition was published the following year.

In Matthew Beros’s book Bibliomania: Thomas Frognall Dibdin and the Early 19^th Century Book Collecting, he notes:

The reception of Dibdin’s book however was mixed. Thomas De Quincey and William Beckford satirised his scholarly pretensions as a bibliographer and tended to dismiss Dibdin as a self-indulgent dilettante. Part of this dismissive attitude towards The Bibliomania on the part of the literati is due to the lowly status assigned to bibliography during the 19th century. The Monthly Review deplored the ‘extravagant value placed on petty and insignificant knowledge’ such as bindings, format and paper. Also they heavily condemned the tendency for bibliomanes such as Dibdin to prefer the anecdotes of printers, publishers and purchasers to ‘historians, orators, philosophers and poets of antiquity’.

In 1810 James Beresford penned a critique Bibliosophia or Book-Wisdom which he describes as a ‘remonstrance against the prose work, lately published by Thomas Frogall Dibdin under the title The Bibliomania’. Beresford praises an appetite for collecting books which are ‘fully distinguished, wholly unconnected and absolutely repugnant to all idea of reading them’. The superiority of the collector is asserted over that of the ‘emaciated’ student who can never possess more then a ‘wretched modicum of his coveted treasures’. — https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/30027/TXT_Bibliomania.pdf?sequence=1

Bookplate in our copy of Bibliosophia, unfortunately cut-off by a book repair.

Part II of Beresford’s book.

James Beresford (1764-1840), Bibliosophia; or, Book-wisdom. Containing some account of the pride, pleasure, and privileges, of that glorious vocation, book-collecting. By an aspirant. II. The twelve labours of an editor, separately pitted against those of Hercules (London: Printed for W. Miller, 1810). RECAP Z992 .B474 1810

Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847), The Bibliomania; or, Book-Madness; containing some account of the history, symptoms and cure of this fatal disease, in an epistle addressed to Richard Heber, esq. (London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, by W. Savage, 1809). Rare Books (Ex) 0511.298

James Beresford

Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors & Soldiers

James Craig Annan, John Reid, George Eyre-Todd, and William Guy, The Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors & Soldiers at Erskine House (Glasgow: Printed for Private Circulation [by] James MacLehose and Sons … 1917). 38 photogravures by Annan. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2016- in process

While Thomas Annan is remembered for documenting the slums of Glasgow in the mid-nineteenth century, his son James Craig Annan also used his camera to record daily life and social reforms in Scotland well into the twentieth century.

The Erskine mansion and its gardens above the Clyde River were purchased by John Reid on behalf of the Scottish people and opened as a rehabilitation hospital on June 6, 1917. This sumptuous work, printed on the occasion of the formal opening, documents the mansion and its various workshops devoted to limb making, wood carving, and basket making.

James Craig Annan (1864–1946), is not mentioned anywhere in the book except in Reid’s acknowledgements, seen here. Annan learned to make photogravures in Vienna, where he traveled with his father in 1883. Together, they bought the rights for Great Britain and Ireland, and practiced the craft in the family’s photography studio, which continues to flourish in Glasgow.

Erskine is still the charity that looks after injured servicemen in Scotland but now there is a new hospital in the grounds of the old one. To learn more about the hospital, see: https://www.erskine.org.uk/

To stay in the old mansion, now a hotel, see: http://www.clydewaterfront.com/clyde-heritage/erskine/erskine-house

Inauguration of Charles VI

Relation de l’inauguration solemnelle de sa sacrée majesté imperiale et catholique, Charles VI., Empereur des Romains, toujours auguste, et troisiéme du nom, Roy des Espagnes, comme Comte de Flandres, celebrée à Gand, ville capitale de la province, le XVIII. octobre 1717 (Gand [Ghent]: Augustin Graet, 1719). Purchased with funds from the Rare Book Division and the Graphic Arts Collection 2016- in process

The monumental engravings in this recently acquired festival book celebrate the investiture of Emperor Charles VI as Count of Flanders on October 18, 1717. The ceremonial stage in the Place au Vendredy, Ghent; multiple firework displays; and events at the grand Theatre are among the scenes documented.

A fusion of Flemish, Dutch, Belgian, and French artists were involved in the publication’s seven plates, including engravers Michael Heylbrouck, Jan-Baptiste Berterham, and Jacobus Harrewijn, working after designs by Jean-Baptiste Van Volsom, Jacques Colin, and Karel Eykens.

De Profundis

André Gide (1869-1951), Oscar Wilde: In memoriam (souvenirs) Le “De profundis”. Avec une héliogravure. 4e. éd. (Paris: Mercure de France, 1913). Rare Books: Sylvia Beach Collection (Beach) 3254.789.369

Princeton University Library offers 36 different options for studying Oscar Wilde’s De profundis, the letter he wrote during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol to Lord Alfred Douglas. You can read the transcription, enjoy a fine press edition, hear it sung, or research it with annotations. Now we have another.

On Sunday 30 October 2016, Patti Smith read Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis in the former chapel of Reading Prison, Reading, and that reading has now been made available to all (approximately 3 hours). Something to do over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Event: Patti Smith reads De Profundis (2016) from Artangel on Vimeo.

“De Profundis,” writes Colm Tóibín, “cannot be read for its accurate account of their relationship, nor taken at its word.” This is in part because Wilde had no other choice but to write a letter, or write nothing at all. The succession of prisons in which he was held between 1895 and 1897 allowed no writing of plays, novels, or essays.

Over the last four months of Wilde’s incarceration, he and the governor of Reading prison came up with a scheme. Since “regulations did not specify how long a letter should be,” Wilde would be given pen and ink each day and be allowed compose correspondence as long as he liked. The letter would then be his personal property when he left. Despite its literary density, the letter remains, writes Tóibín, “one of the greatest love letters ever written.”

Reading prison has just been opened to the public for the first time this year. Since July, artists, writers, and performers have gathered with audiences inside the prison to celebrate and commune with the spirit of Wilde. Among the events have been readings of De Profundis by Tóibín, who read the letter in its entirely last month, as did Patti Smith.–Josh Jones, http://www.openculture.com/2016/11/patti-smith-reads-from-oscar-wildes-de-profundis.html

For more information on this series, see Artangel: https://www.artangel.org.uk/

Peregrinations of French Types

Mark Argetsinger, Peregrinations of French Types in the Sixteenth Century: Printing of Robert Bellarmine’s ‘Disputationes’ in Southern Germany. A Bibliographical Analysis of the Second Ingolstadt Edition Printed by David Sartorius, with Leaves Incorporated from Volume II, ‘De sacramentis’ 1591 (Union Springs, New York: Press of Robert LaMascolo, 2016). Copy 183 of 200. Graphic Arts Collection 2016- in process

Nicolas Barker once wrote, “Mark Argetsinger is one of the very few typographical book designers in the world. That is, he thinks in terms of type, not graphical layout. He handles printers’ flowers with the bravura and assurance of Frederic Warde, and can achieve that rarity, optically spaced capitals, with apparent ease….” And so, when Argetsinger writes about typography and book design, it is important that we read and listen.

The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired one of Argetsinger’s limited edition Peregrinations of French Types in the Sixteenth Century. The foreword, written by Herbert H. Johnson, begins “This splendid book–the culmination of a long-time wish of mine to publish a series of ‘Leaf Books’ dedicated to the works of famous printers and type designers–has its genesis during my undergraduate days at the Rochester Institute of Technology….” Limited to 200 numbered copies, each book includes two original leaves from Disputationes, printed in 1591.

For more on the LoMascolo Press, see: https://sk-sk.facebook.com/rlpress/. For more on Argetsinger, see: http://argetsingerbooks.com/

Memorials of the Old College of Glasgow

Thomas Annan and others. Memorials of the Old College of Glasgow (Glasgow: Thomas Annan, Photographer, 202 Hope Street. James Maclehose, Publisher and Bookseller to the University, 61 St. Vincent Street. MDCCCLXXI [1871]). 41 albumen silver prints. Graphic Arts Collection 2016- in process

“On July 28, 1870, the Senate of the University of Glasgow met for the last time in the Old College Buildings to confer degrees to outgoing students. The following year the ceremony was moved to the New Buildings.

Annan conceived the present volume as a both a memorial to the 450-year history of the university and as a record of the ‘venerable structure before it underwent any change’. Consequently he here presents fifteen interior and external views of the buildings with various aspects of the Inner and Outer Courts, the Professor’s Court and the Hunterian Museum.

Three professors, Dr. Weir, Professor Veitch and Professor Cowan, agreed to contribute texts in which they record the history and work of the individual faculties. To their notes Annan added twenty-six portrait photographs of members of the Senate at the time of its removal to the New Buildings.”

This is the eleventh album of photographs by Annan acquired by Princeton University Library, in an attempt to document this man’s work in its entirety. Whether in portraiture, landscape, or architectural photography, Annan remains one of the most accomplished artists of his time.

Lovers of Harmony

The Songsters multum in parvo; or, New pocket companion for the lovers of harmony. Embracing all the popular new songs, singing at the theatres royale, minor places of amusement, & c. (London: J. Fairburn, no date [1808-1810]). 6 volumes. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Cruik 1808.2

A reference question led to the discovery that each of the six volumes in this series has a different frontispiece. The British Museum attributes the designs to Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811) and notes: “The book, in six volumes, was issued in 72 weekly numbers, 19 Nov. 1808-31 Mar. 1810, each with four plates; the frontispieces and ten of the other plates are after Cruikshank.” Albert Mayer Cohn lists them as drawn by his son George Cruikshank (1792-1878). The engraving was done by William Grainger (active 1786-1809).

Here’s the set:

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